The Tornado
by smileyjill2002
Summary: Tokyo is in the grips of a massive tornado. Can Yusuke and his friends survive the terror of nature's own monster?
1. Default Chapter

"The National Weather Service of Tokyo has issued a tornado watch for Tokyo and the surrounding area. There have been reports of funnel-cloud activity spotted in the southwest portion of the city. Please exercise caution before venturing outside at this time," crackled the feminine voice of the radio announcer across the school's loud system. Yusuke watched in amazement as he witnessed the sky from his vantage point in the gym become as black as ink. The ominous clouds hovered over the city with an unnerving sense, blocking out the afternoon sun. Ear-shattering thunder roared violently, shaking the junior high school all the way to its cement brick foundation. The pinging of the rain and hail combination thumped across the gravel rooftop and slid against the glass windowpanes.

"Mr. Urameshi, what is going on? Are we going to be hit?" asked one of his worried students.

"Akita, this is just a threat. All this means is the conditions are right for the possibility of a tornado."

"Attention all students and teachers, this is Principal Urameshi. As you have just heard the watch for this area has been announced. If there is a tornado on the ground, we are to head to the lower level immediately. If you feel the need to be with your family, please ask your teacher for permission before leaving the school. But do so right now before conditions worsen."

"Why do you have to ask permission to leave?" asked a boy, his voice becoming unsteady.

"Sota, she cares about your safety, as do I. You see how the wind is blowing the rain against the window…Dr. Minamino, you are leaving?" Yusuke watched as his friend pass by in the hallway.

"I want to get home and check on Shiz and the kids," replied the doctor, poking his head in the door. "I closed my office for the day; I fear this storm will get worse before the day is through. Lucky you, you have your family here at the school. Megumi is in the preschool program. Ms. Keiko is in her office trying out her new position as principal. She was my last patient today. I had that ultrasound machine in today to demonstrate to Mr. Tsyoko's biology class, and you know how opportunistic your wife is."

"Yes that's Keiko for you. When it's there for the taking, she doesn't resist at all. So what is it?"

"It's a boy. I thought you knew already though?"

"I did, we found out last week. Well it will be good to have someone to pass my name on to. Besides Megumi has wanted a little brother. Ever since she found out her mama was pregnant, she has been praying night after night for a brother."

Shuu gazed out the window, his nerves became as unsettled as the wind outside. "I think I had better get out of here, the weather is getting worse." The doctor exited the hallway, waving goodbye to his friend.

"You be careful out there, Doc. That wind will tear you to shreds if you let it. Last thing we need around here is a shredded fox."

"Will d…Shiz, what are you doing here?" he shrieked, seeing her rush in the door to greet him. The loud shrills of Sakura's voice were heard muffled from inside her blue fleece coat. Her coffee-brown hair was matted to her neck and back; her skin glistened with ice clinging to her face. She trembled in sight of her husband, shivering from both the chilling weather and her own rattled nerves.

"I was getting scared you weren't coming home. It's getting so bad out here, it is starting to hale outside. I was home when the windows were shaking. I had just put the baby down for her 2:00 nap when the branch from that old Japanese maple started thumping loud on her window. By the time I got her out of the crib, the wind smashed the branch through the window. I had to get Saito and her out of the house."

"Where is he, where is our boy?" his frightened father wondered, trying to settle her fears as well as his own.

"He's at Mom's house," she said with a blank stare in her eyes, her mind seemed miles away, as her voice trembled and stuttered with every word she said. "Kazuma is housesitting for mom and dad while they are in Hawaii this month for their second honeymoon. I came here because I didn't know where else to go," Shizuru's frozen tears clanged to eyes, her heart ached in disbelief to her story. "The baby won't stop crying. Getting here was miracle in itself. So many cars on the side of the road, I saw the police everywhere. There was one black truck smashed into a tree that looked like yours; its front end was totaled. I was afraid it was you. I was scared I would never see you again," Shizuru's voice faded as her eyes turned away from his and her face fell, as tears streamed down her cheeks to the corners of her mouth and dripped off her quivering chin. "I am so sorry I should never have come, but I was so scared," she began to sob, her tears gushing down her cheeks in the same torrent as the relentless shower of hail outside. She flopped into Shuu's arms, her tears staining his cream-white lab coat.

"Hey hey shh shh, it's okay. Shh, it's okay, Darling, you are safe with me," he repeated to her, wrapping his arms around both of his girls. He held his wife's head against his chest, combing her hair with his fingers, kissing her on the cheek continuously.

"The car skidded twice, at one point it hydroplaned. I was afraid Sakura and I were going to crash. I thought we were going to die," she stuttered, her voice being etched like a textured pane of glass with the downpour of her tears.

"I know, Baby, it's going to be okay. You got yourself and the kids out safe and sound. That's what's important. You are safe with me, that's what I wanted. You did the right thing. I was afraid too, for you and the kids. I don't what I would do if I could never see you again. You are all my most priceless treasures. I could never give you up. I love you too much for that."

Just as the doctor was calming his wife down, suddenly the loud speaker cracked with startling new. "Quiet class," Yusuke commanded over the voices of his students echoing in the cavernous gym. "…Services of Tokyo as now confirmed a tornado has just touched down an hour southwest of the city. I repeat a tornado, measuring about a mile wide has touched down outside the city. Please move to a safe location, immediately."

The bells of the school rang continuously. "Okay, Class, listen to me. We are going to walk down to the lower level now. Walk. Don't run. I know you must be scared, but the least thing we want is for you to panic and trample over anyone." His wife and daughter joined him on the staircase, heading them into the basement.

"Daddy, what's a torbato?" Megumi questioned him. Ignoring his girl's question at first, Yusuke ushered his class to the emergency light lit corridor in the basement.

"It's called a tornado, dear. It is a storm where warm wind from the south meets the cold wind from the north. When those two winds combined, then a tornado may appear."

"Is everyone in the basement now?" hollered Keiko. "Teachers, will you please take role call." Just as she said that, the group heard a bellowing roar and felt the floor shake.

"What is that, Mrs. Urameshi, an earthquake?" shouted a young man in his cracking voice.

"That was no earthquake, that must be the tornado," a young girl responded for Keiko.

"Quickly everyone, against the walls. Tuck your head down right now," the principal commanded.

Shizuru covered her daughter's ears against the thunderous roar of the storm, shielding her from the noise. Shuu opened his coat and shielded both his wife and child, kneeling with them on the floor. He peered over at Yusuke, seeing him shelter his daughter. Both men stared at each other, their eyes trembling to the thrashing of the pounding wind and rain. Megumi stiffened with fright nestled within the firm embrace of her father's arms. She closed her ears with her hands to the sound of windows shattering and the smashing of objects being flung like rubber bands into the plate glass front entrance.

"Mr. Urameshi, I have to go home. I need to see if grandpa is okay," asked a worried boy, his voice trembling with every word.

"Tsume, there would be no point. Your granddaddy is probably dead by now. You are all alone now," snorted back a taunting boy's voice.

"Mr. Tobacho, that is enough out of you. Tsume has every right to worry," retorted Yusuke to his student. "Hundreds of people die due to tornados every year. But it doesn't do him any good if you tease him about it. Plus you don't know if his grandpa didn't make it to a storm shelter, so you can't just rush to judgment."

"Are we going to die, Daddy?" Megumi inquired, in a quiet mousy voice. She stared up at him, clinging as tightly as she could to his shirt with one of her tiny fists. Tears filled her eyes and quickly she buried her face between Yusuke's chest and upper right arm.

"No, Pumpkin, we are going to be just fine," he reassured her, caressing his frightened daughter in his arms. He held her head against his chest with one of his hands, sliding his fingers between her pigtails. Yusuke's other arm held her body tight against his, confirm to her that she was safe.

"Where is Mommy?" Megumi asked, her legs starting to squirm, crossing herself under the skirt of her dress.

"I am right here, Baby," Keiko reassured her, stroking her downy hair. Megumi shifted her body and raised her arms to her mother. "What do you need, Meg?"

"I think she misses you and I think she has to go to the bathroom," Yusuke noted to his wife.

"I think the storm has subsided right now, there doesn't seem to be anymore commotion upstairs from the wind." Keiko commented, as she heard the wind fading into the distance, "I'll take her up."

"I'll come with you," announced Shizuru, "Sakura could use a diaper change and I need to freshen up myself. Shuu, could you call my brother for me?"

"Of course, be careful okay. There are things broken upstairs." His voice became silent, as he gave her a firm embrace in his arms and a sugar-sweet kiss across her satin lips. As he watched the girls leave for the main floor, Shuu reached into the pocket of his straight black slacks and drew out a sleek flip phone. He reclined himself against the railing of the staircase leading to the first floor, pressing the lighted keypad with his thumb. Shuu placed the phone against his ear for a few seconds of silence.

"Hey man, it's so good to hear your voice again. How are you holding up?"

"Good to hear your voice, did my sis arrive there safe?"

"Both she and the baby are fine. I guess you are fine yourself. How's the boy?"

"He's fine, he was a little concerned when the storm hit. He kept calling for you. But you have to give some credit here. We Kuwabaras can handle anything. A little windstorm isn't going to ruin things for us. Hey you want to talk to him?"

"Of course, I have wanted to all day since this storm hit." Shuu heard a bit of scuffling on the phone, as Kazuma was handing the phone to his nephew.

"Da-ee?" sighed a worried little voice.

"Hey buddy, how are you?"

"Bi low win, Da-ee?"

"Yes I know. That was a lot of wind."

"Mo-ee?"

"She's here too, so is Sissy. Are you behaving for Uncle Kazuma?"

"Yeah."

"Can I talk to Uncle Kazuma? I will see you soon, Champ, okay."

"O-ay," came a fading response from Saito, as he handed the phone back over to his uncle.

"I'm back. You know I was thinking…"

"Wow something you hardly do?" joked the fox demon.

"Hey now, Fox Boy, I save the life of your boy, and this is how you respond?" Kazuma joked back, pretending to take offense to his friend's floating comment. "What I was going to say is I am going to come over to the school where you're all at."

"Okay man, you be careful though. Shiz said she had trouble getting here, the roads are a bit dicey."


	2. The Aftermath

Kazuma and his nephew pulled into the parking lot with the beams of the bright orange sun fading into the western skies guiding him to a clear spot of the cluttered asphalt. A blanket of broken tree limbs and branches littered the ground around his car. An eerie stillness filled the air, as though he was waiting for the storm to pick up once again. The front of the school he remembered from the days of his junior high years felt distant as he gazed at the once gracious archway, which had lead him to the front of the building demolished with a black Sudan lodged in the ground blocking the entrance with its backend. Carrying Saito on his hip, Kazuma cautiously examined the grounds on his way to the entrance. Both the broken glass from the school's windows and debris of vehicles that had been thrown like lawn darts into the earth in front of the shattered entrance mesmerized Saito. Kazuma gingerly stepped over the ground, edging himself into a building he once took for granted in his earlier days. The days when he and the members of his gang continually butted heads with the brash street fighter felt like they were just light years away. He crept over the remains of a bone white Toyota lodged in the doorframe in the darkened foyer of the old Saranaski.

"Hello, is anyone in here?" he hollered up and down the corridors of the seemingly empty building.

"Kazuma, there you are. I am glad you had showed up," his sister said to him in a hollow voice. She stood before him, the baby asleep in her arms. She looked at her brother with a blank stare in her eyes. She gazed at her son; the thought of never seeing him again still clung to her mind. Saito, still clung to his uncle, reached over and touched his sister on forehead with his flattened hand. Tears drew lines down her face, seeing the both of them standing in front of her. "Kazuma…" was about all she could muster out of her relieved heart.

With his free arm, he embraced his sister. "Shizuru, I am so glad you and Sakura made it in one piece. I was so afraid you wouldn't make it and end up crashed, in the hospital, or worse. You are my favorite sister and the best mother I know, I'd hate to lose you. I know Kurama would be a mess without you."

"Yes I know, he's told me that so often. Still it feels good hearing those words repeated. I feel the same way about you. You are my number one little brother. You will always be my best friend, the first man in my life. I am glad that this puny windstorm didn't steal you and Saito away from me."

"Where is everyone else? I see that Urameshi's car has made itself a home in the school."

"I was wondering whose car that was. It looked like Yusuke's, but with everything scattered, I could tell whose that was at first. Of course his plates would have SPRTGUN tapped onto it. Yeah, that's his car. He's going to have a mondo fit, Keiko told me last week he just had the transmission fixed," Shizuru sighed heavily, rolling her eyes.

Suddenly a pair of rose-smelling hands reached from behind the young mother and covered her eyes. "I wonder who this could be. Is it a doctor, a demon fox, or maybe it's a guy being ornery? Naw, its just some poor schmuck who has nothing better to do with his time than to blind me and make me guess."

"Hey, now. I am not poor," the guy retorted, "The fox does wish one thing from his vixen," he whispered playfully into Shizuru's ear, flopping his arms around her neck like a rag doll. "He requests some milk duds from his sweet."

"The vixen will give the fox all the milk duds he wants, later, when she is not holding their kit in her arms," she replied, turning herself around to greet him. Shizuru looked at her fox boy in his sparkling jade eyes, twirling his hank of ruby hair around her fingers with her free hand. He turned his gaze, pretending to be disappointed. She drew her hand underneath his chin and smiled at him. "How about one milk dud, will that do for now, fox?"

"I guess," he sighed. Shizuru drew her lips towards his, and caressed his for as long as they could.

"I hate to break this little reunion up, Sis, but…" Kazuma interrupted, "Your boy is becoming restless. And sounds like Urameshi is done with role call. Think I will break the news about his beloved four-wheeled baby."

The old junior high rivals met each other at the top of the basement stairs near the front entrance of the school. "Kuwabara, I see the wind has brought you here but why are you not letting me past to let me dismiss my students."

"Yeah I know but I have some good news and bad news…" Kazuma hesitated. Suddenly an uneasy feeling swept between him and Shizuru. "Sis, did you…"

"…Feel that? Yes, something has happened," his sister confirmed.

"I'll say something already did happen. Who or what is the idiot who brought my car inside the building?" Yusuke sneered in a very snappy voice, upon seeing the foyer of the school, "Kuwabara, you were trying to bar me from seeing it, tell me you didn't do this."

"You caught me, I did it on my way in. You know my power to levitate heavy objects," Kazuma obviously lied.

Coming out of the Ladies Room with her daughter in one arm and a cell phone in her other hand, Keiko peered at he husband with a worried look on her face. "Honey I can't get a hold of the old woman. I have called my parents to see if they made it through the storm, they did. I called Atsuko; she's at a wedding in Kiyoto. Shizuru and Kazuma's parents are in Hawaii, Shiz told me earlier. Then I called Genkai but I couldn't get through. Honey…?"

"Give me the phone," Yusuke requested. His wife handed him her phone. He redialed his sensei's number.

"Maybe the tornado knocked the cell tower out in her area?" wondered the fox demon.

"No, we got a satellite phone for her and for ourselves," replied Yusuke, "Now that she is getting older, we keep track of her everyday."

"Maybe the batteries are dead in her phone?" suggested Shizuru.

"That can't be, I was up there yesterday and replaced the old batteries with brand new ones. She should be good for several months. Her phone is ringing but I am not getting any response," he replied in a worried voice.

Shuu shook his head, and looked at his distressed friend. "Maybe we should go up there ourselves and check on her. I am starting to worry about her and I am getting this sick feeling in my stomach about her, like something has happened."

"You all go and check her out," Keiko suggested, "I will watch the kids. I can't see anything spiritually as well as any of you can."

"All three? Are you sure you want all three? I'd hate to burden you," replied an uneasy Shizuru.

"We'll all be at the school and my parents. Besides it will give Megumi a chance to play with Saito, she would love it. I know he loves hanging out with her. And it will give me practice to handle a baby again, since this summer I will have this boy," Keiko insisted.

"Yeah, well Urameshi, since your car is in here, might I suggest my car. I have it parked outside."


	3. Destroyed Temple

Kazuma's white Toyota arrived at the bottom of the hill leading to the temple area. The grounds were littered with fallen branches, trees had been stripped of their bark, and several young saplings had been torn from the ground and had been strung across the ground, like a huge boulder had crushed them to the roots. The stone steps that once led Yusuke and Kazuma the first time they met Genkai, had been smashed by fallen trees and in some places completely shattered by the rain of branches and tree limbs.

"I am almost scared of what awaits us at the top of this broken hill," commented Yusuke in a quiet voice, as he examined the trees leading the foursome to the temple.

"Sis, I don't like this. In all the times I have been on this hill, this is the first time I have been scared about what awaits us," Kazuma's voice trembled with every word from his mouth.

The group stepped cautiously towards the plateau. Yusuke was the first to see the area, when a shocked look came over his face. Words failed to express his feelings or thoughts.

"What's wrong, buddy? All of a sudden you…are…as…white," Kazuma fell to his knees when he caught sight of the temple arena, "It's gone," was all the orange brunette man could muster.

Shizuru quickly turned her face and hid it on Shuu's shoulders. "That explains why we couldn't contacted her by phone. Her temple has been destroyed. Where is she though? Yusuke?"

He scanned the arena, seeing the roof of the main building had collapsed to the ground and its bright green shingles scattered like broken glass. "I can't s…see her. I can detect her p…presence, but…" he replied, still flabbergasted by the carnage of the complete destruction of his master's temple by the tornado that had passed through the region moments before. "She told me long ago this place was her legacy, that her father left her the temple and the entire grounds to her upon his death. The very same place I trained at, to whom she willed the land to upon her own death, she would hand it to me. The very place that Megumi or our unborn son would share someday, it's gone."

Suddenly a cold chill crept across Shizuru's spine, like a crying scream calling out for help from the old woman. "Yusuke, I know you are upset about the temple, but I can hear Genkai's thoughts. She is crying for help. She's trapped and scared."

"I can see her in my mind, Urameshi. I am afraid if we don't do something now, the temple won't be the only thing the tornado took away."

"I see her too, she is under the main temple rooftop," alerted her former student, "Shizuru, can you lift heavy objects?"

"Yeah, well I lift weights every morning before work. I started this after Sakura's birth to help eliminate the stretch marks."

"Good then will you and Kurama grab the far right corner of the roof, Kuwabara and I will grab this far left corner," instructed the black-haired man. The married couple complied with their friend's request and knelt to the ground beside the right corner. Her brother and his old school buddy knelt at the left corner. Simultaneously, all four individuals grabbed their portion of the roof. "I will release a portion of my energy to help us lift," he offered.

"Okay, Shiz, you ready?" wondered the fox demon, as a weave of his whip rope crawled out his shirt sleeve and secured the portion of the roof in both his and his wife's hands, "That will help us lift this thing," he informed.

"On my count of three we lift. Ready? One, two, three, lift." With that the foursome pulled as hard as they could on the weighty roof. To their surprise, the roof with its thick ceramic shingles and cedar rafters was quickly hoisted and turned onto its side like a retractable lid on the ground behind the temple.

Shizuru quickly spotted the old woman lying face down with her legs trapped under the head of her smashed twelve-foot Buddha statue. Shiz raced over to the woman, followed closely by her husband and Yusuke and her brother. "Genkai, we're here. Are you okay, honey?" inquired Shiz in a clear voice, as she knelt down to the old sensei. "Baby bro, can you remove this broken statue off her legs?" Kazuma complied with his sister's request and rolled the cumbersome statue off of her legs gently, as though not to crush them any further.

Shizuru pulled her body from the cedar plank floor and rolled her onto her back. "Oh my gosh, Genkai's not breathing! You guys, help her." The younger woman places her index and middle fingers across the side of the old woman's neck. "She has a weak pulse, means her heart is still working for now."

"Place her on the ground," instructed her doctor husband. Quickly Shuu opened her mouth and placed his mouth over hers. He breathed into her lungs, trying to get her oxygenated. "Come on, honey. Come back to us, please," he begged to her, as he was breathing for her.

"Please, Grandma, come back. I don't want a repeat of what happen ten years ago when I lost you. Please, I need you back," begged her former student, as tears welled in his eyes.


	4. Genkai's Dream

"Father, I have failed you," Genkai mouthed, her wrinkled cheeks moistening from the tears trickling from her still closed eyes. In her vision of her barely opened eyes, she gazed at a black-haired man in his mid-50s standing in place of Yusuke. She saw herself has his young daughter, at the age of 20. Her downy pink hair danced across her soft rosy cheeks. In that moment her skin and face were soft a subtle due to her youthful appearance. She peered up at him, studying his wiry beard and curly handlebar mustache, her eyes blinded by the pool of tear. His long black hair fell to the back of his shoulders, looking as wiry has his beard, and was pulled to the back into a loose tail on the back of his thick neck.

"Father, I remember when you gave me this temple to guard. I still can recall the days spent in the temple with you. How mama died when I was 6, how you raised me on this mountain, teaching me everything you knew about being able to harness a person's own spirit energy and use it in combat. You were the finest martial artist, teaching me everyday to become as great as you. I loved every moment with you on the mountain, even though on those days of a rigorous trial, which I dreaded. Even that one time when I was violently sick with food poisoning when I was 14, you carried me from my bed to train. Though every few minutes I was throwing up, you helped me get past the day by using that as a mode to fight."

"I can never forget that day, Father," Genkai continued, grasping onto her father's body, like a small child, standing on her knees before him. "I can never forget the day you entrusted the temple and the land to me. When I was 20, I had just returned home from the Dark Tournament with Otouto Toguro, to find you lying sick on the soft bed on the floor of the main building. You were all that I had in my life. You held out your hand to me upon your final hours, seeing me kneeling to the floor beside you. Holding my hands, as the chill from your last breaths blew across my ears, you said, 'Genkai, my sweet, please protect the temple for me after I am gone. Keep it pure from evil and safe from harm.' With that your hand dropped, and your soul disappeared into the night air."

"Genkai, thank you for doing that for me," he replied in a deep bellowing voice, "It means so much that my only child has honored her late father's wishes."

The pink-haired woman shook her head and collapsed to ground before her father's feet. "I failed you. I tried to protect it for you. I tried to do as you said, but today I failed. I couldn't protect it and it's now destroyed. I tried to save it, but I couldn't do anything." Genkai curled into a ball at his feet, the wooden floor dampening from the rush of tears pouring from her breaking heart.

The old man knelt beside her, caressing her shaking body with his enveloping arms. He gathered her body into his insulating arms and held her head gently against his broad barrel chest. "Baby, what you mean you have failed me?"

"Don't you see, the temple destroyed. The very place where we spent our days, it's gone. The very place I promised you I would look after for you after you left me. This place that has survived 700 years under our ancestors' care, it has now been destroyed under my care. I have let you down, let grandpa down, great grandpa, great great…everyone. All our families' generations, I have let you down. A temple you had entrusted to me and I end up letting it get destroyed. For that I don't deserve to be called your daughter. You have to hate me because of this. " Her voice trembled and her words labored between sobs on her father's chest.

"I can never hate my little girl. You mean more to me than anything. I love remembering holding you like this for the first time. From the moment you came out of your mother, I cradled you against my heart like this. The first cry ringing through your tiny lungs was like listening to an angel's song. You were the prettiest baby I had ever set eyes on. That was the first moment I fell in love with you. I could hold you forever if I wanted, almost had a hard time giving you back to your mother. Your grandfather was the one who insisted I should give the temple to you when you were grown. I felt that the temple he meant was this child in my arms. You to me are more sacred than any temple made of earth, wood, or stone." He embraced her as tight as he could, wrapping the hanging sleeves of his deep navy kimono trying to settle her tears.

"But Father, I promised to keep it safe, and I broke that promise. Are you not angry with me that our sacred house of worship has been destroyed? Are you still able to trust me anymore?"

"Genkai, did you think I was referring to this old relic? This is just a building, nothing more than that. This building can be repaired and replaced. You think that after 700 years this building hasn't succumbed to fire, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, earthquake, tsunami floods, or to criminal misgivings?"

"But you said protect the temple. And I have tried to, but I couldn't."

"But ten years ago, didn't you give a young man something more precious than an old building. Didn't you give him your spirit energy and half of your soul with it?"

"You mean Yusuke Urameshi? Yes I did, I gave it to him shortly before my own death. But Father, what does that have to do with the temple?"

"Baby girl, after all these years of you being a psychic, could you not figure out that the temple I was referring to was the building at all?"

"You mean I was the temple? But how can that be, I am not worthy to be one?"

The old man smiled to her and gazed into her eyes, brushing her tears back with his thumbs. "I just can't get past the gaze of a beautiful woman you have become. You look just like your mother, like an angel with her wings clipped. You have protected the temple inside your heart. You have guarded it against evil, against temptation, through all the trials life itself can interfere and taint the heart and the soul and spirit energy it houses. You have done me proud, Genkai. I wished for you to pass it along to the next generation and you did. And you passed it to a man whose soul isn't black with malice or who has evil in his heart. The man whom is holding you in his arms will carry it until he gives it to his children. Open your eyes and see for yourself his face."

She lingered to open her eyes, as her father commanded. Slowly she regained her focus to find the familiar face of the young man standing before her. Once again she felt her skin wrinkled and dry, like the old woman she was.

"Hey, Grandma, welcome back to us," he smiled in a hushed voice. His tears clung to his eyes as he combed through her grayed pink hair with his fingers.

The old woman stared into his eyes but never said a word. Instead she bit her lip, trying to stifle her emotions. She leaned herself against Yusuke's knelt legs. Her former student extended his hand to her, allowing her to stand on her knees.

"I am so sorry your sacred temple got destroyed. I know how much you loved this place, and how much you tried to guard it against the great evil and fury the demons from Makai possess."

"No, you dimwit, the temple my father gave me isn't destroyed. It is very much still intact," she replied in a quiet voice.

"How do you mean? Look around and see…" Yusuke replied in a discouraging voice.

"Dimwit, do you remember what I gave to you ten years ago? On Hangneck Island, I gave you that spirit orb and half of my soul."

"That was before you died that time. I was hoping today I wasn't going to lose you again. I don't know how I would be if you died again."

"I know you would be a mess, Yusuke," replied Kurama, "Just as before you wouldn't stop crying for weeks."

The old woman glanced her eyes once again at the black-haired man, the tears like before pooled in her eyes, and trickled down her ripples of worn skin on her cheeks, dripping off her quivering chin. "That day I passed you the Spirit Orb, I passed you more than just my energy and soul. I gave you such a precious gift; one my father gave to me. That was the true temple. I entrusted it to you to keep it safe for me, and you have done so well. I am so proud of you for keeping it safe within your heart." Her voice faded, as she traced an s on her former student's chest with her bony index finger. "You're right, Father, he is the right one to protect the temple for you…" She quickly drew her hands from Yusuke's chest and shielded her eyes from his.

Quickly feeling his teacher's pain, he enclosed his arms around her body and held her against his chest, the way her father did, close to his inviting heart. Just then her heart burst into a shower of tears, staining the front of his shirt.


End file.
